I'm not a transfer Scrooge, insists Wenger despite only making ONE signing

Arsene Wenger has dismissed suggestions he is too Scrooge-like to splash the cash at Arsenal and insisted he is ‘rather generous’ with money he spends on players.

Arsenal have missed out on Gonzalo Higuain, Luiz Gustavo and are likely to fail in their bid for Luis Suarez after claiming they would finally flex some financial muscle.

But the Arsenal manager insisted on Friday: ‘Sometimes the image you give people is reality and sometimes not. Of course it’s unfair. I just defend the idea that you spend the money you have and not the money you don’t have.’

VIDEO Scroll to watch Arsene on Suarez to Arsenal

Prudent: Wenger put his Arsenal squad through their paces in training on Friday

He said he was excited at the prospect of breaking his record transfer fee and was not resisting the board’s desire to open the chequebook, but insisted only the ‘right’ quality of player would be added to his squad.

However, Wenger also hinted for the first time that the club’s pursuit of Suarez was destined to fail because of Liverpool’s reluctance to sell to a rival.

Arsenal are poised to offer close to £50m, but it does not appear Wenger is confident.

Missing out: Luiz Gustavo is unveiled by Wolfsburg on Friday

‘The issue is that the club sometimes does not want to sell at any price,’ he revealed. ‘In the example of Suarez and you are Liverpool, you have to calculate if you want to get into the Champions League, who are our rivals and do we want to sell to them?’

Arsenal missed out on Higuain, who left Real Madrid for Napoli for £34.5m, and were confident of landing midfielder Gustavo from Bayern Munich before he opted to go to Wolfsburg. With £123m in the bank, Wenger admitted the expectation for big names was high, but said: ‘We are guided by the quality of the player.

‘You know, I am rather generous. But we had to go through a period when we had to look at the money that we spent. For years I did that. Today we have more so we can spend more. It’s as simple as that.’

Wenger conceded the size of his squad was a ‘worry’ but promised 11 internationals would start against Aston Villa on Saturday, with more on the bench.